Malagueñas (flamenco style)

Malagueñas (Spanish pronunciation: [malaˈɣeɲas]) is one of the traditional styles of Andalusian music (flamenco), derived from earlier types of fandango from the area of Málaga, classified among the Cantes de Levante. Originally a folk-song type, it became a flamenco style in the 19th century. It is not normally used for dance, as it is generally interpreted with no regular rhythmic pattern, as a "cante libre". It has a very rich melody with virtuous flourishes and use of microtones. Its guitar accompaniment is normally played in open position first inversion giving E for the tonic, which can be transposed by using a capo.

Malagueñas derive from local variety of the Fandangos, a type of dance that, with different regional variations and even different names, became very popular in great part of Spain in the 18th century. Although nowadays malagueñas are a typical instance of "cante libre", performed at libitum and normally not used for the dance, folkloric fandangos were originally sung and played at a fast speed, with a rhythmic pattern in 6
8, to accompany dance. Some of these primitive fandangos from Málaga, called Verdiales are still performed nowadays at folkloric gatherings by large non-professional groups called "Pandas", which use a high number of guitars, "bandurrias" (a sort of mandoline), violins, and tambourines.

Towards the second half of the 19th century, some interpreters gave the first steps in transforming this folkloric songs into real flamenco. They slowed it down (although still keeping the eastern fandango rhythm pattern known as "abandolao"), they enriched the melody with flourishes and ornaments and reduced accompanying instruments to a single guitar. In this process, they were probably influenced by other flamenco styles, but modern research also suggests that the influence of Opera, Zarzuela and other classical music styles also played a part in this development.

The oldest malagueña of this type that has been preserved to our days is probably the Jabera . This was first mentioned by writer Serafin Estébanez Calderón, probably in the 1840s. According to this contemporary witness, this type of malagueña would have been created by an artist known as La Jabera. This early malagueña type still preserved a rhythmic pattern as those of later artists like Juan Breva. Most of the malagueña types were created in the last decades of the 19th century.

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